The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-10
BIRDS, DOGS AND ALLIGAToRs
The Pets Which Amuse the Rich and
the Idle.

The Pets Which Amuse the Rich and
the Idle.
NEW YORK, July 9.-Dick the canary is
dead. He was carried off by an influenza
during the long, cold spring. Gretchen the
housemaid opened a window one foggy
morning without moving his cage, and
there is mourning in the land for Dick.
There is a faint tinge of regret for Fido the
pug, who is so delightfully."- ugly, with his
black nose and short face, but who is out of
style--or going out, which is worse-and SO
must leave his soft cushions and take off his
embroidered blanket, poor thing The sea-
son is Just at hand when dealers in birds
and animals are looking about them for
novelties, when the fashions in pets are be-
ing set for another year, when caprices in
feathered and four-footed life are offered
every day to tempt my ladyS whlm, when
the town house is closed. the winters men
agerie scattered to the four winds OF heaven
and the new assortment of taVorltes taken
TO the country for summer domestlcatlou
and breaking in
Are there fashions in pets3 Dear me- yes
The real dog lover or bird lover is rare and
twice in three times owns neither dog nor
bird. A few years ago every woman of
fashion wore spitz dog; now you might
go into every house on Murray Hill and a
good many other hills besides and not fiud
one Some spitz dog so far forgot himself
as TO snap at his mistresS' white finger may
hap. and so the rumor got abroad that the
spitz family is surly and ugly--it is false y;
there are no more faithful and affectionate
nets in the brute creation-and a deal of
newspaper talk ensued; but the Punishment
of the spitz was most due to his getting out
of stvle. He had been king but his subjects
had wearied of his reign. Aud that more
recent favorite, the pug-he who has lorded
it over the poodle SO long-is he not to give
Mace to his hated rival again this fall! And
except at a dog show who ever sees a Renu-
inc King Charles spaniel Of whose silky hair
our grandnlothers made so much. And the
lilo dogs. the mastiifs and settlers, that
every Young lady led about with her last
summer. where have they betaken them
selves'
Assuredly fashion prescribes pets as well
rs gowns. When the grand dame murmurs
in her doggies ear that he Is her darling, 1t
is always with the saving clause unex-
pressed. $50 long, dear, as You are the style;
when that changes, pet, you must 60" The
dogs special physician and nurse, his daily
airing on the promenade, his receptions to
other elite doglets-these are all mocbery
and emptiness and deceive not tho elect II
their object is 70 make the beholder believe
that there is once III dozen times any al
lection wasted on the pampered beastie.
People can like dogs. am inclined to be-
live that Lolita, the actress, likes the enor-
nous mastiif she is frolicking with this sum
NOR. as she has played with It great many
summers while Off duty. Olive Logan is
fond of the French terrier she has had for
almost twenty years; but folk OF fashion
take 20 one dog this year and another next,
ne they fondled the breeds that Sir Walter
Scott preferred until Byron eclipsed the
older poet. affected tho Newfoundland and
led the whole English-speal.ing world after
him.
The most popular of familiars of the ami
NAL kingdom, good deal affected by New
York won en- Just now, are the marrnosets,
not quite so big as a new born kitten They
cost from $40 pair upwards, and last win
ter Won might have seen woman or two
sleighing i'm the park with marmosets in
stead of a muif in her lap to warm her
hands There are monkeys which are some
times taken into houses for pets, but which
are usually bundled out again about as soon
women almost never like monkeys-and,
especially since the rush 60 Southern resorts
began. alligators, which have way pecu-
iiarlv their own of making themselves at
home In New York drawing rooms. These
latter sustain life ON a diet of raw beef.
They require only slanting log 10 bask on